Broken Leaf Spring and a few upgrades.
 

I own a 2001 Club Car DS 48 volt electric.

A week ago My rear driver side leaf spring broke in half. I figured I would just upgrade both rear springs to Heavy Duty and while I'm at it upgrade the front leaf spring to heavy duty.

I'm keeping my cart very basic with nothing fancy but as I do any repairs or upgrades I'll use this one thread. :thumbup:

Re: Broken Leaf Spring and a few upgrades.
 

The parts are in. I wish I could have purchased the parts local but nobody had them in stock so I found a website and eBay to order front and rear HD Springs and replacement bushings and bolts. I must say UPS is fast.

Re: Broken Leaf Spring and a few upgrades.
 

Check out how bad off the rear springs were. I mean the bushings were dust and plenty of rust. :thumbdown:

Re: Broken Leaf Spring and a few upgrades.
 

Both rear springs replaced along with all those sour bushings and that rusty old U-Bolt.

Rear springs installed no problem but you may notice in the photo I had to remove the lower bushing on both shocks otherwise I couldn't place the bolt on, the shock wasn't long enough. I might get new shocks in the near future and see if they sell any slightly longer?

Test drove and drove great also felt about 2 or 3 inches higher :thumbup:

Re: Broken Leaf Spring and a few upgrades.
 

Removed front leaf spring. Also, plenty of rust and bushings were also history. :thumbdown:

Re: Broken Leaf Spring and a few upgrades.
 

Installed new front leaf HD spring and replaced bushings. I must say the front was a lot easier than the rear but I was able to install both front and rear before it got dark and that's a big deal for me because I never work on cars or golf carts or anything so I guess if I could do it anyone can do it.

On a side note I was considering installing a lift kit but after installing these new HD Springs I gained 2 or 3 inches in height. So, I'm going to just replace my 8" wheels with some standard 10" wheels and tires and that should be plenty of height for me. :thumbup:

Once again as I do any upgrades I'll just use this one thread.

Re: Broken Leaf Spring and a few upgrades.
 

Thanks for sharing with us. I have a 97 DS that will need new springs before long, so your experience and photos were very welcome. :thumbup:

Re: Broken Leaf Spring and a few upgrades.
 

Your right on there Mike, All you gota do is do it, When you get stumped you can find a helping hand here, Keep going man and post pictures

One suggestion is get a photobucket account,

Cant wait for more..

Thanks for including us!!

Re: Broken Leaf Spring and a few upgrades.
 

When you did the rears,did you take apart the bushings thru the frame at the rear of the rear spring(shackle-bushings)and clean everything?We've had a few of these carts,and on every one the shackles were frozen solid and wouldn't move.Brake-Caliper lube is awesome for this stuff,way better than Never-Seize.Hope this helps.:thumbup:

Re: Broken Leaf Spring and a few upgrades.
 

I must admit they were pretty stiff but the week leading up to removing the old springs I sprayed all the areas I planed to remove with PB Blaster and then as I was removing I used some WD-40, I had to do some tapping but fortunately I didn't have to cut any bolts. Also, before I started the repairs I read through plenty of posts here on BuggiesGoneWild and that was probably the most helpful. :thumbup: